Whoopi Goldberg Under Attack For Saying She Ended Apartheid, Not Woke Kids
Whoopi Goldberg has made some bold claims in a trending video. Here's what she's talking about.
This article is more than 2 years old
Whoopi Goldberg has been trending on Twitter for a while now, for a video that actually dates back over a year and has recently resurfaced. Why? It all comes down to a twenty-second speech, but says a whole lot. Her name may be coming up so much for two reasons. The first one is likely that so many people are having to tweet to try and explain what she said. The second is the shocking and controversial nature of what it is she said exactly.
In the Instagram video below, you can see comedian Hasan Minhaj speak for most of the first minute, with a few interruptions, and then Whoopi Goldberg take over for the last twenty seconds, in which she claims responsibility for ending apartheid. Also, Joe Biden did, too.
What is happening here? This is a clip from an episode of HBO’s The Shop, which originally aired in February, 2020. When comedian Hasan Minhaj is talking, he is discussing how the republican party in the United States has a united message and vision. Meanwhile, he says that there is infighting between democrats that support Joe Biden’s vision for the United States and the more progressive, or “woke” politicians. And then, proving Hasan Minhaj’s point about how there is fighting between two distinct groups of democrats, Whoopi Goldberg comes out swinging. She isn’t yelling at the republicans. She’s addressing the woke kids, or, the more progressive democrats many associate with Bernie Sanders or Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (AOC).
“How do you think Apartheid changed?” Whoopi Goldberg asks. “We did that. That’s what Joe Biden did. Nobody does anything the way you want them to do it. But do not put down the people whose shoulders you’re standing on. You are standing on our shoulders. And we are holding the line. And for people to say– uninspiring? What are you inspiring?”
Breaking this down, while her comments seem addressed at Hasan Minhaj, by the end she is clearly just yelling at the woke kids. She is saying that Joe Biden ended apartheid in South Africa. When she says “We did that”, she seems to mean that the more traditional core of the democrat party in the United States, commonly associated with Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton, are responsible for ending apartheid in South Africa. She also suggests that the woke kids are standing on the shoulders of the more traditional part of the party.
When Whoopi Goldberg says they are “holding the line”, she likely means against the republicans, meaning that they are doing what they can to stop republican political actions. This is something the more progressive group has spoken out against, because they want progressive actions taken instead of just “holding the line” and staying the same.
Did Joe Biden end apartheid in South Africa, as Whoopi Goldberg seems to indicate here? Uh, no. It’s also likely that South Africans would find it offensive that anyone would claim Americans were responsible for those changes to their own country. He’s made some claims about his participation in anti-apartheid movements that he has since had to step back. For example, at one point he seemed to claim he was arrested in South Africa, which didn’t happen. However, he was involved, to a point. In 1986, he gave an impassioned speech in defense of the people in South Africa and the problems with apartheid in the country. That video went viral when it resurfaced online and can be watched below.
What are people making of everything that Whoopi Goldberg has said? Are they in love with the actress for calling out woke kids? Do they feel she’s responsible for saving the people of South Africa? Nope. Mostly, Twitter isn’t happy with her. Here’s what’s being said:
On Twitter, the general reaction to Whoopi Goldberg’s statements have been that she isn’t an authority on the subject, discredits the South Africans who made change in their country, and then an additional dash of people basically saying, “OK, boomer.” Perhaps the woke kids didn’t end apartheid in South Africa. However, neither did Whoopi Goldberg.
